Are there any salacious history books of 1970's gameshows?
October 30, 2014 12:47 PM   Subscribe

So I met a guy who used to work on a few of the celeb shows of the 1970's - the Bert Convy, Jamie Farr, Young Betty White years. He was telling some stories that were equal parts shocking and hilarious. I was wondering: IS there some sort of oral history of the shows and all their craziness at the time BESIDES Confessions of Dangerous Mind? I'd love to read about it.
posted by rileyray3000 to Media & Arts (6 answers total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
You couldn't call it salacious, but Backstage with the Original Hollywood Square by Peter Marshall is pretty amusing, and a bit more frank than I expected.
posted by Flexagon at 1:10 PM on October 30, 2014


Not a book, a special that aired on the Game Show Network: The Real Match Game Story: Behind the Blank.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 1:20 PM on October 30, 2014


Chuck Barris wrote another one called "The Game Show King: A Confession." I read it ages ago when it first came out, but I remember that it was pretty entertaining, if not terribly salacious (unless you count a brief story about the infamous Popsicle Twins).
posted by holborne at 1:37 PM on October 30, 2014


Former Jeopardy employee Harry Eisenberg's 1993 Inside Jeopardy!: What Really Goes on at TV's Top Quiz Show alleged stacking the deck in favor of woman players. Remaining Jeopardy people called him a liar. Those charges were removed in its 1995 re-issue as Jeopardy!: A Revealing Look Inside Tv's Top Quiz Show.
posted by Zed at 5:42 PM on October 30, 2014


Adam Nedeff has written several excellent books about game shows, and he is currently in the process of writing one about Gene Rayburn, who was the original host of Match Game. That one will definitely have the kind of stories that you're looking for.
posted by DRoll at 5:54 PM on October 30, 2014


I'm positive an old friend of mine wrote an oral history piece on Match Game for Entertainment Weekly, where he interviewed a bunch of people including (I think) Bret Somers. All I could find was this, which must have been a sidebar, but maybe you will have better luck finding it.

I used to rush home from school to catch Tattletales because I had a huge crush on Bert Convy.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:53 PM on October 31, 2014


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